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CU System

Measuring social media marketing impact difficult

MADISON, Wis. (12/20/11)--More than ever credit unions are using Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media to reach consumers, as evidenced in part by the success of Bank Transfer Day. A new study indicates that while executives expect the success of every marketing campaign to be measured, it is more difficult to quantify electronic marketing.

About 82% of executives surveyed said they expect every campaign to be measured according to the "2011 State of Marketing Measurement Report," a survey professionals conducted by Ifbyphone (eMarketer Dec. 16).

Yet, in breaking down the different marketing types, only 47% of U.S. marketers believe they can effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of e-mail marketing. Other types of marketing saw even smaller percentages. For social media marketing, only 26% of marketers think they can effectively measure ROI.

About 62% said they track an overall net increase in sales to measure the success of marketing programs. Also, 57% look at the number of new customers acquired, 39% track the number of new leads generated, 33% look for an increase in customer retention and 33% measure a quantified increase in awareness.

The tools they used to measure marketing campaigns include Web analytics, cited by 48% of respondents; e-mail marketing software analytics (47%); leads from contact forms (38%); and social media monitoring (30%).

Among the marketing types for which respondents believe they can effectively measure ROI:

E-mail marketing--47% of respondents;

Direct mail--41%;

Online ads--40%;

Print ads--34%;

Trade shows--28%;

Social media--26%;

Search engine optimization--24%; and

Public relations--18%.

Measuring which keywords drive either the most clicks (40%), the most online conversations (40%) and the most phone calls (37%) were cited by marketers as challenges.